Toughness is part of American DNA

How badly do Texans want rain?

Some are praying for a hurricane.

Really. It seems the only way we are going to get wet. But that isn't going to work, either. The winds don't favor us.

I do know my mouth watered as I watched Irene climb over the east coast. I keep telling you Texas is big. Irene would have covered Texas with just a little sticking out for our friends in drought-striken New Mexico and Arkansas.

That one hurricane would have ended our drought for some months, at least. After the ground was saturated, the runoff would have filled our rivers and man-made lakes. Ten to fiftheen inches of rain. Sounds delicious.

An examination of soil at the site of the Possom Kingdom Lake fires last week showed one percent of normal moisure. The fires in Bastrop County won't be truly contained, a firefighter said today, until there is rain. None is coming. The cooler temperatures and lighter winds help.

So far, about 1,000 homes burned just this week. Overall for this year in Texas? has to be several thousand. Some of these are old homesteads and Victorians that are 100 to 200 years old. Area burned 3.6 million acres, now about the size of Connecticut.

But as one man said this morning after the home he had lived in for decades burned to the ground: "I've come too far in my life to let this get me down. We'll just keep goin'."

Maybe this is my tribute to the 10th anniversary of the fall of the towers.
I remember that wonderful accent when a New York firefighter was honored for his heroism.
He gave a little shrug, a little smile, and said simply,"I'm a New Yorker."

Whether dealing with terrorists or misbehaving Mother Nature, we will survive. After ten years, the message to me is that we are a tough people, and we will survive.

That is a fact, a memory, well worth the knowing.